


Spread Your Wings

by Nik_Knight



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Hacker, Self-Insert, TF2 Hacker, Tenth Class TF2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-25
Updated: 2019-11-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:07:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21557500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nik_Knight/pseuds/Nik_Knight
Summary: When Soldier gets angry and scolds the Hacker, she loses her cool and does something she might regret. Will she be able to hide her other side, or will she be shunned for the monster she thinks she is?
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	Spread Your Wings

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fic for my pal on Discord, and for my pal Kitty. Please remember that The RED Hacker's name is Nikki, and the BLU Hacker's name is Kitty. This takes place during MvM, so both RED and BLU teams are working together. Enjoy!

Untitled 

Soldier's voice thundered through respawn as most of the mercs filed in after their lost battle at Mannworks. Nikki could practically feel his spit dripping onto her back from his rant.

"YOU COULDN'T EVEN HIT A SINGLE BOT! YOU LOST US THE MATCH AND NOW THE HATCH IS BLOWN TO SMITHEREENS! WE WOULD HAVE WON IF YOU COULD HAVE JUST LEARNED TO AIM-"

She was already upset for missing her shots at the bomb-carrier. Her aim was terrible without her glasses, but she had been avoiding using them after one of the scouts laughed at Sniper after learning his sunglasses were prescriptions. Sniper didn't mind the jeering, but the RED hacker believed it was a whole different case. She was already one of the smallest of the mercenaries, and a girl at that. It had been difficult enough for her to prove her worth on the battlefield and being a four-eyes wouldn't help.

Now, however, she would have gladly worn her glasses if it meant Jane would get off her back. Nikki, being a generally fussy girl, let out her anger all the time, and never got truly irate.

Unless you yelled. 

She couldn't handle a man raising his voice at her. She had been so prone to crying at even the slightest yell, that by her teens she was conditioned to fear yelling men. She was sure she snapped at some point in her past, but the memories didn't seem to be present. She only knew she hated yelling. Soldier yelled all the time, but never angrily at the hacker herself. Now, him having been nearly screaming for seven minutes, she snapped again. Eyes wide and bright scarlet irises shone for a moment before the snap.

Soldier was stopped short of his rant when the hacker's hands wrapped around his throat and pushed him into the lockers. He fell to the ground and Nikki followed him down, crushing his windpipe with impossible strength. The strangled sound of Soldier trying to get oxygen back into his lungs brought the attention of the entire room onto them. Her mind was blank as she squeezed his throat, thumbs pressing tightly to his Adam's apple. It wasn't until a robotic arm yanked one of her arms away that the real world took occupancy in her mind again. The sudden pain of her shoulder dislocating snapped her back into reality almost as quickly as she had left, her side slamming against another wall of lockers.

"What in Sam Hill is wrong with you?!" The Engineer shouted loud enough to startle everyone in the room. The BLU scout nearly seemed to jump out of his pants at the Texan's voice. 

"ME?!" Nikki shouted back so loud that her voice nearly cracked. "WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME?!?!!" She nearly stepped towards Engie to challenge him before a giant hand push her back slightly.

"Enough," Heavy stated clearly and calmly to the hacker. "Done enough. No more."

She could not BELIEVE what she was hearing. Soldier went off on her yelling and screaming harsh words into her ear and no one was trying to stop him? Even Engineer was yelling at her, albeit less harsh and loud, but still! Nikki hadn't seen anything wrong with her reaction. It's was normal to be upset. 'Talk shit get hit,' is what was common knowledge where she was from. She wasn't going to let herself be yelled at by him. No way in hell. 

The rage was beginning to reach her eyes, and she soon felt hot tears make their way into them. In one final act of aggression, she slammed the side of her fist into the nearest locker, denting the door in considerably. She turned on her heel and left the room before she could let any tears fall.

\------------------------------------------

It had been six hours after Nikole had left when Spy made it his task to find her. After hearing what had happened, he knew that she would need time to cool off before he could reach out to her. However, when no one had seen her at lunch or dinner or at any time in between, he knew he should at least check to see that she was alright. 

He had expected an enraged little girl with the intent to maim or kill when he came to her bedroom. What he didn't expect was the BLU hacker looking back at him with a very concerned expression.

"She isn't with you, is she?" Kitty asked shyly.

"Non. I had expected that she would be seething here." He gestured at the small room sans RED hacker. He watched as the girl hurriedly typed in a number into her phone and held it to her ear.

"Come on, come on... damnit!" Kitty cursed under her breath. "She's not answering her phone."

Spy stomach turned with a strange sickening worry he hadn't felt in a long time. "What does she usually do when she's angry?"

"Angry?!" Kitty asked louder, concern growing more prevalent on her face. "That's why she hasn't shown up?! Damnit!" She sighed, trying to calm herself, then looked back at Spy. "If she hasn't gone on a destructive rampage yet, then she's probably ran off."

"Do you have any clue where?" Spy didn't like the idea of an irate hacker being out and about in the middle of the night, especially if she was near civilians.

Kitty shook her head sadly. "No. She doesn't think when she goes, so she could be anywhere."

"She has to be somewhere with a five-mile radius..." Spy began to brainstorm how many public establishments were in the area.

"You can be surprised how much ground she can cover," Kitty began, not looking directly at Spy. "She could be anywhere..."

"Do you think she took a car?"

"No... she can just move fast when she wants to."

"Merde..."  
_____________________________________________

*Six hours earlier*

The rage blinded her as she stormed through the halls. At some point she had picked up one of the Scouts’ discarded bats, dragging it against the concrete floor as she walked. Pain behind her eyes and shoulder-blades was a telltale sign of danger. Her left shoulder was still dislocated from Engineer's grip, but the pain was dulled by the anger building in her soul. She left the base through the back door on the east side of the compound, the side less visible by sniper towers, and succumbed to the rage. She growled gutturally as the sting of her back grew. The faint tearing sound of fabric was heard as claws broke through her shirt. Eyes in their primal form, wide and crimson now, saw the plane of souls, hers growing to over the size of a small room. Dark purple wings had fully sprouted now, and by the light of the dying sun, she flew off into the countryside.  
_____________________________________________

They had broken off into uneven teams. Scout ran around the entire base, battlefield, and surrounding land. Pyro double checked all the rooms, Demo and Heavy checked the town, Sniper kept an eye out in his tower, and Engie stayed by the front entrance of the base in case she came back. Medic prepared for the worst in the infirmary. Soldier had disappeared the moment he heard the hacker was missing. Spy and Kitty took his Mercedes out into the countryside following the faint cellular frequency that only a smart phone could give off. 

Kitty gripped her tablet tighter as a soft ping rang out of it. The signal stopped at a half a mile north of them. 

“A little bit farther; I think she stopped moving...” Kitty’s voice wavered as she realized that either meant Nikki had gotten tired or hurt. Spy’s foot dug into the gas pedal and they rode out the half mile in fearful silence. In the distance an old shed came into view near the signal. The car slid into a halt and frightened some sheep grazing in the area. There was no sign of disturbance other than a few solid dents on the side of the shack. A metal bat lay by that side. Spy nearly kicked the car door open and speedily walked to the shack door.

“Woah, woah, Spy, don’t go in there yet!” Kitty warned as she fumbled with the car door. Spy ignored her, revolver at the ready, he pushed in the door and aimed inside.

There, in the corner of the nearly empty shack, lay the hacker, curled up in some sort of leather blanket. Her hair was slightly disheveled, and she shook terribly. Her eyes were wide and red. Tears tracks streamed down her face and soft whimpers came from her lips.

“Oh, Merde,” he breathed. In an instant he was kneeling beside her checking for blood. He asked her several questions about what had happened. Where has she been? Did she get hurt? Did she hurt anyone?

The girl’s eyes roamed over Spy as he tried to get a better look at her. She shrank against the wall each time he tried to reach her. The questions were not heard, and the only thing said was a soft “Don’t hurt me...”

“Non, non, mon ami, it is alright. Are you hurt? Here let us get this blanket off so I can check—“ he touched the leather and hacker yelped as if burned.

“No! NO!” She kicked at him, trying to scramble away. “Back off!”

“Nikki!” Kitty shouted, leaping into the room. “Code?”

“RED! RED!”

“Spy, you need to step back please,” Kitty asked gently, and she approached the terrified hacker. Spy did as was asked and shuffled back. 

He had seen some strange things in his life, but the build-up to this had confused him. He could always have sworn that the RED hacker’s eyes could change colors, but only at certain times. He had seen it in battle when the girl’s maniacal laugh and lazy posture would be observed during a domination, or that time when she had been startled awake by him. Even in her file photograph it seemed that the flash did not cause the red eyes. Seeming his suspicions confirmed, however, had actually caught him off-guard.

“What are you...?” Spy asked softly, voice shaking but barely noticeable. The girl looked up at him, scared, of him. The hands of the other hacker cupped her face and she whispered to her.

“Nikki... do you want him to know?”

“He’s gonna try to kill me,” she sobbed out. “He’s my friend. I don’t want ‘im to hate me.”

“I...” Spy paused a moment to gather his words, pushing the feeling of shock to the side. “I won’t try to hurt you, Nikki. I just want to know what you are so I can help you.” His words, though spoken calmly didn’t have the desired effect, as the hacker let out another sob and leaned her head back against the wall in defeat.

“That’s what they said... They said they’d try to help— AHHH!” She grabbed her head in hands and shook it violently from side to side. Her face wracked in pain. “I can’t—!”

“Don’t try to remember, focus on me. Look at me, Nikki!” Kitty said, frightened.

Within another moment the hacker calmed down a bit, still shaking. She turned in his direction. “Something happened to me, Spy. That’s why I can’t remember. That’s why it hurts when I try... I don’t know what they did to me, but I don’t want it to happen again! I won’t let them hurt me anymore...”

“Nikole... Whoever did this... whatever it was... I won’t let them hurt you. I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to change you. Let me help, please,” he implored.

She looked at him. Her pupils shrank, scarlet irises growing as her stare bore down on him, through him, and beyond. She seemed a million miles away, but he felt glued to where he kneeled, his entire being felt exposed as she looked. She closed her eyes and the feeling was gone. When she opened them again, they were a faint rust color, much closer to her normal tea, brown. She nodded at him, accepting his help.

“Okay... thanks, Spy...”

“Of course, but please,” he paused, trying to find a polite way to phrase is words and failing. “What are you...?”

“Don’t really know. Can’t remember. Mostly human but a little of something else...” She drifted off, energy drained from the stress. She lazily swung her head towards Kitty. “Tired. Flew here.”

“Oh. Um, are they sore? You haven’t used them in months...” Kitty noted as she gently lay a hand on the blanket.

“A little. You guys took a car?” She looked over at Spy again who was checking his watch.

“Oui, though we should get going now. The others are still waiting— attendez,   
You flew here?” He asked, not sure what she meant. There was no plane here, nor helicopter.

Nikki sighed, then nodded. “Yeah... here,” she leant forward as if to stand.

“Non, non, slowly, here, I will help,” He said, stepping closer, only to yelp and stagger back in surprise at what he saw the very next moment.

The purple leather blanket stretched out on its own, bone-like structures underneath it shown as they extended towards the man. They halted as soon as he stepped back.

“Merde!” 

They were wings, about two meters long on each side, dark purple, and little claws at the ends of the bones, not unlike a bat’s. The girl’s face fell as she noticed the rogue looking with a startled expression. She looked upset and guilty as she pulled the wings back towards herself. Something akin to shame rose to her cheeks and she looked at the floor.

It took only a moment for Spy to collect himself. He sighed and stepped forward carefully. “You should probably warn someone next time, Nikole.” He relaxed and lent down towards the girl. Carefully, he stepped between the large wings and wrapped his arms around her lower back. With a small grunt he lifted her into his arms. Though he wasn’t as strong as some of his other teammates, he was able to lift her without too much trouble. 

Nikki made a bit of a startled noise when he put his arms around her. He wasn’t much of a touchy person, yet he hefted her up and into his arms. Instinctively, she wrapped her arms and legs around him, and her wings wrapped around them both, effectively sticking them together.

Spy had to admit, although this was strange, he had seen far stranger. For the most part, though, he was simply focused on getting the girls back to the base, and in the range of respawn, just in case their teammates didn’t take the news well.

“Come now, chaton,” he said, glancing back towards Kitty. “We best let the others know she is safe.”  
——————————————————-

The car gently tumbled along the grassy earth on their return to the base. Kitty happily chatted with Spy about a few small adventures the hackers had together, and Spy chuckled whenever she told him of the ridiculous actions they took in them. 

Nikki lay in the back, hardly listening to them. She sat there somewhere between wakefulness and sleep, eyelids drooping as the bumpy road rocked her closer to a gentle rest. Spy had accepted her as she was: a human-monster hybrid. It didn’t seem rational. It didn’t seem real. In the back of her mind, she suspected his acceptance wasn’t genuine. Perhaps he was too frightened of her to be honest, or perhaps he had some plan to use her secret to his advantage, as any spy would. She hoped none of these theories were true, but she had been betrayed so many times that she couldn’t help but doubt. Even after looking into the agent’s soul for falsehoods, and finding none, she worried.

A particularly harsh bump in the road jostled her injured shoulder enough to make her yelp in pain. Spy glanced back a moment, pausing his conversation with Kitty. “Nikole?”

“Sorry,” Nikki sighed. “My shoulder got dislocated earlier...”

“Well, we are almost back at the base,” he assured her. “The Medic should be prepared to fix that.” He looked back to the ‘road’ and continued to drive.

“Nah,” she breathed quietly, looking down at the car floor. Spy looked at her from the rear-view mirror and raised an eyebrow. After no response came from the Hacker, he cleared his throat and pressed on.

“Non? It must hurt. The medigun will relocate it.”

“Nah, it’s—“ she paused, then sighed again. “He’s a madman, ya know? I mean, we know he’s crazy, ‘n’ that’s part of why we love ‘im... And I know he’s my teammate and my friend, I think, but... I’m a monster. Don’t want him dissecting me in the name of science or somethin’...” she trailed off, hoping Spy would understand why she didn’t want go see the good doctor. 

“Ah,” he said quietly, considering. He also noticed her city accent getting heavier, reminding him of Jeremy. “How about the Engineer, then? A dispenser would fix—“

“Nah,” she interrupted. “He’s the one who dislocated it. He still might be mad.” 

A heavy silence hung in the car as they separately tried and failed to come up with another solution. When the silence became too heavy to bare, Nikki coughed and quietly noted, “I’m working on the field tomorrow. Gotta respawn at some point. It’ll get fixed then.”

Spy gave her another concerned look through the mirror. “Can you wait that long?”

“S’pose it’s the best option.”

“For now, at least...”

“We’re here,” Kitty said, pointing at the base coming into view. “Gonna let them see your wings?”

“If I gotta.”

The three only had a moment to dread the oncoming reactions the other mercenaries would give them before a distant explosion caught their ears.

“What was—AHH!” Kitty shrieked when something red and large suddenly landed right in front of the car. Spy cursed and slammed on the breaks, just barely stopping before running into the object.

“WHERE IS THE LITTLE MAGGOT, PRIVATES?!” Soldier tossed the rocket launcher off of his shoulder and planted both hands on the hood of Spy’s car. 

“What on Earth are you talking about— GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF OF MY MERCEDES, YOU ANIMAL!” Spy leapt out from the car to confront the madman. 

From the back-seat Nikki’s heart was beating quickly. The soldier was intent on finding her, at least it seemed that way. There was a large purple bruise on his neck where his shirt collar didn’t cover. He must have been irate. She was torn between shrinking out of sight into the back seat where Solly couldn’t see her, and going out there and confronting the man himself. However, when she spotted Kitty going out there to calm the two, she knew she had to act before Kitty got hurt in the crossfire.

“You tell me where the Cadet is, crouton, or I’ll—!”

“Non, she has been through quite enough today and it will do you good to know—“

“C’mon guys, we’re all teammates here, can’t we just get along and not—“

“Alright, listen up, fuck-os!” Nikki shouted over them, leaning halfway out of the car. “Leave this to me. ‘Seems like it’s me ‘e wants anyways.” She stepped from the car and shut the door. She marched up to Soldier, wings high and open in a subconscious attempt to make herself look bigger. “Alright, Sol, let’s settle this. You an’ me.”

“Exactly.” He grinned beneath his helmet.

Nikki shuddered slightly. She didn’t take Solly as a man that would fight out his differences with her, but she was too far gone in this to back down now. Soldier shrugged off his Buff Banner backpack and began to pull something from it. Slightly surprised that this wasn’t going to be a fist fight, Nikki quickly unsheathed her rapier at her side.

“Aha! Found it!” With a slight flourish, the army man pulled a white blanket with little jack-o-lanterns printed on it. “Ta-da!” He swooped the blanket over the hacker’s shoulders and rested his hands on his hips triumphantly.

Confused, Nikki sheathed the blade and looked from the soft cloth to the proud, beaming soldier across from her. “...What?”

“Indeed, What?” Spy chimed in.

“I found it!” Jane exclaimed. “Your blanket! You said you couldn’t find it after the move from Teufort! After your terrible show today on the battlefield, I used my brain power,” he jammed a finger onto the side of his helmet for emphasis, “to figure out that you were not getting any sleep! So I dug around in the storage crates and I found it! Now we can get back to beating those anti-American robot bastards!”

Spy brought his hand up to cover his face. “Oh mon Dieu...”

“Aw~” Kitty chimed.

Nikki glanced at the blanket. It was one she wore over her shoulders every morning on her way to breakfast or to the showers. She hadn’t known Soldier had even noticed it at all since she predicted that he could only see up to her waist at any given time. After a moment of staring at the fabric, she walked to Jane and latched herself onto him, holding him tight, glad he wasn’t upset from her nearly killing him this morning.

“Thanks, Sol.”

“Sure thing, Cupcake. Now C’mon. The ladies back at base all have their panties in a twist without you.”  
_____________________________________________

The blanket was a blessing. The demon wrapped it around her wings and kept them hidden as the four of them walked into the main entrance of the base. They noticed that the Engineer had been pacing when his boots squeaked to a stop as they walked in.

“Ah, thank god y’all’re alright!” Dell reached down and grabbed Nikki around her arms and squeezed her. “You scared the dickens outta me, girl! Thought you coulda got hurt or- or something worse- aw hell...” He had been worried, that much was clear. He still held tight, yet softly around the hacker, a pure contradiction to when he had been this morning.

Nikki was startled, she hadn’t expected Engie to be this worried. She had flinched a bit more than she liked when he hugged her, but she quickly melted into it after the edges of panic had dulled. “Didn’t mean to scare ya,” her city accent melting into his Texan one. “Didn’t think ya’d worry though. ‘S just me, Engie.”

“Yeah, ‘n a little girl like yerself ain’t got no business tearin’ it up out there this late at night! Ya know the common folk out there don’t take to kindly to us mercs.” He squeezed again for good measure and let go.

“I have very little clue as to what either of you just said,” Spy muttered as he passed Engie and laid a hand on his shoulder fondly. “I am sure it was all in great kindness, but you may let the others know everything is alright now, do not want anyone else worry-“

The door from the mess hall flew open as it had been kicked open by Jeremy. “Nik, Holy fuck!” He scooped the Hacker up and squeezed her with much more force than seemed possible with his thinner arms. “You scared the shit outta me an’ I ran everywhere lookin’ for ya but you wasn’t nowhere on base an’—“

“Scout, you’re crushing me—“

“An’ I was thinking you was hurt ‘cause Dan said Engie tried to rip ya shoulder off and I was freakin’ out like—“

“Scout!” Spy interjected, laying a hand on his shoulder. “She cannot breathe.”

“Oh-shit-sorry, Nik.” He let go of her, watching as she turned from a pale blue to her normal copper color.

“Christ, you can squeeze,” She panted out once she had enough oxygen in her lungs. 

“If you think that ninny bunny can squeeze, you should watch this—!”

“Non!” Shouted Spy jumping between the two hackers and Soldier. “Mon Dieu! These children need rest! Solder, why don’t you go fix tomorrow’s schedule? These two are in no condition to fight tomorrow.”

“Actually, I’m fine—“ Kitty began.

“Non, no condition to fight,” he smirked and glanced at her. At this order Soldier saluted and rushed to the office. “Come along now, children, let’s get you both to your rooms.”

“Children?” Kitty asked, confused.

“I’m Twenty-two!” Nikki reminded him. 

“Oui, Oui, now go. I’ll meet you there in ten minutes. I must organize the rest of the team.”


End file.
